Horner: 'Verstappen lost almost twenty percent of downforce'

Max Verstappen thought he had suffered a puncture after running over a piece of carbon from one of the AlphaTauri cars, but that turned out not to be the case. This is what Christian Horner says in conversation with The Race . The Red Bull Racing team boss also reveals how much downforce was missing from the remainder of the race due to the damage to the floor and bodywork of the RB18.

"We could see there was a massive loss of downforce, close to twenty per cent," Horner said. "Of course because it was underneath, there was nothing obvious. It wasn’t like half the floor was hanging off. It was difficult to actually understand it initially which was why Max reported a puncture but it was actually a major ‘update’ that had gone on.”

Verstappen immediately felt that something was not right, while Red Bull did not know exactly what was wrong at the time. The Dutch driver therefore took the precaution of coming in immediately. In the end, a tyre change was not necessary as it was not a puncture. He therefore lost quite a lot of time on his competitors.

No World Championship points lost by unnecessary pit stop

Red Bull does not think the unnecessary pit stop had any influence on Verstappen's result. A top-six ranking would not have been possible anyway according to Horner. The drivers who finished fifth and sixth, Fernando Alonso and Lando Norris, were far too fast for the damaged RB18 of the reigning world champion.